Nolan's departure took away the suffocating pressure, but the crack in the sky was like a bleeding scar, silently telling of the disaster that was coming.
The abandoned industrial area on the edge of the city has been completely transformed into a scorched earth like the surface of the moon, with huge craters and fan-shaped pits hideously imprinted on the earth.
The aura flowing on Mark's body slowly converged, like metal solidified after cooling in a furnace, settling into a more restrained and dense metallic color under the skin.
Every heartbeat was like thunder rolling in the chest, pumping blood containing terrifying power.
Bones are no longer a simple support, but a super structure with a density comparable to that of neutron star matter. Muscle fibers are like billions of high-strength alloy steel strands, forming a perfect outline full of destructive power under the skin.
He stood there, exuding an oppressive feeling like a humanoid natural disaster with just his pure body that had been tempered by solar radiation and forged by the blood of Vitrum.
He turned and looked at his mother, Debbie.
He carefully helped his mother to a relatively stable piece of huge concrete debris.
"Mom, wait for me here."
"There are still some small fish that have not been dealt with."
Mark's voice was low and steady, with an unquestionable sense of power.
"It will be fine soon."
Debbie looked at her son's eyes, which were as deep as the starry sky but burning with a fighting spirit like lava, and at his body that seemed to be made of steel, and her heart was filled with mixed emotions.
She nodded and grabbed Mark's wrist tightly. The touch was hot and hard, like holding a piece of living metal.
"Be careful...Mark."
Mark grinned, revealing a smile with a steely texture.
He released his mother's hand, and his legs buckled and shot out.
Boom!
The hard lava ground beneath his feet sank and cracked like a fragile biscuit, and spider-web-like cracks instantly spread out for dozens of meters!
He raised his head, his eyes penetrating the dense smoke and dust, locking onto several black spots in the distant sky that were approaching at high speed.
There were three streamlined Vitrum assault boats, tearing through the clouds in a V-shape, their engines emitting a shrill scream.
Under the hull, the hatch opened, and three Vitrum warriors, wearing lighter armor but with high-strength alloy armor covering their joints, were ejected like cannonballs!
They received the signal of their leader's death and Nolan's command, and came with even stronger murderous intent and caution.
Different from the previous elites, their equipment focuses more on high-speed mobility and physical combat enhancement, and their arms and legs are covered with alloy blades and impact spikes that gleam with cold light!
"Target confirmed! Mark Grayson!"
"Execute the highest priority clearance! No matter the cost!"
A cold command sounded on the communication channel.
The three warriors were like three falling meteorites, with sonic booms tearing through the air, rushing straight towards Mark in mid-air from three tricky angles!
They were moving extremely fast, leaving three blurry white trails in the air!
Mark stood in the void, motionless.
He took a deep breath, and his chest expanded like a huge bellows. The surrounding air was forcibly sucked in, forming a brief air vortex.
The first elite warrior arrived first!
Two high-frequency vibrating alloy wrist blades popped out from his arms, and with a sharp scream that could cut through everything, they crossed and slashed towards Mark's neck!
The speed was so fast that only a blurry flash of the knife could be seen!
Mark's pupils accurately captured the trajectory of the wrist blade.
At the moment when the blade was about to touch his skin, his body tilted slightly with coordination and speed beyond the laws of physics!
The blade brushed past the skin on the side of his neck, lifting up a few strands of hair that were cut by the sharp wind!
At the same time, his right hand stretched out like a long-dormant poisonous snake, like lightning!
With five fingers spread out, he didn't block, but grabbed the opponent's wrist with incredible precision while he was swinging the knife!
Snap!
The teeth-grinding sound of metal twisting and bones breaking erupted at the same time!
Mark's five fingers clenched instantly like hydraulic pliers!
The elite warrior's wrist, which was covered with high-strength alloy armor, along with the bones inside, were crushed and shattered like fragile branches. The high-frequency vibrating wrist blade instantly misfired and twisted!
"Ugh!"
As soon as the soldier screamed, Mark moved smoothly, and his right hand, which had crushed his wrist, pulled forward with such force that the opponent lost his balance in an instant!
At the same time, his left knee suddenly pushed up like a battering ram!
Boom——!!!
A heavy muffled sound!
The knee hit the soldier's unprotected chest and abdomen hard, and the terrifying force penetrated his body!
The armor on the warrior's back instantly bulged outward and deformed!
Under the unbearable force, the organs in the chest and abdominal cavities instantly turned into a ball of meat paste mixed with metal fragments!
His eyeballs popped out due to the enormous pressure, his body arched backward like a torn sack, and what spewed out of his mouth was no longer blood, but filthy things mixed with fragments of internal organs!
Mark let go.
The broken body was thrown out like garbage, knocking down half of a crumbling chimney in the distance and was buried under the rubble.
The second elite warrior's attack followed closely.
He gave up fancy weapons and chose the purest Vitrum fighting skills.
High-speed impact with alloy rivets covering the elbows!
His figure turned into a blurry afterimage, with a sharp scream that tore through the air, and the spikes on his elbows were aimed at the back of Mark, intending to penetrate it with one blow!
Mark didn't even look back, his super perception had already locked onto the other party's trajectory!
At the moment when the rivets were about to touch the vest, Mark's body twisted at an incredible angle and speed like a boneless python!
The rivets grazed his ribs, leaving a sharp spark on his tough skin, but failed to break through his defense.
As he twisted, Mark's left arm swung back like a steel whip! His arm sliced through the air, making a dull bang! It struck the opponent's side, which was completely unprotected due to the high-speed impact!
Bang! Snap! Snap!
The heavy arm strike was like a ten-thousand-ton forging hammer hitting a steel ingot!
The alloy armor covering the sides of the warrior's body dented and shattered like a piece of paper!
The terrifying impact force was instantly transmitted to the inside, and at least three ribs broke like dead branches and pierced into the lungs!
The warrior's body was knocked flying into the air by this extremely brutal force, blood spurted out of his mouth, and a terrible parabola was drawn in the air!
The third elite warrior's attack is the most tricky!
He took advantage of his companions' sacrifice and silently flew close to the ground, like a venomous scorpion flying close to the ground. Two alloy blades flashing with energy-cutting arcs popped out from his legs and twisted towards Mark's knees like giant scissors! Intending to cripple his ability to move!
Mark's right foot was lifted up as if teleporting, and then he stepped down hard!
Boom! !
The warrior who attacked the ground like a poisonous scorpion, his body moving at high speed was instantly knocked down by the violent force and lost control!
The alloy blades of his legs collided with each other as he rolled violently on the ground, making a harsh friction sound!
And Mark's figure disappeared in the flying gravel and dust!
The next moment, he appeared above the elite warrior who was blown away and tumbling in the air.
His eyes were cold, like a dragon looking down at its prey.
He crossed his fingers and raised his hands above his head. His whole body was tensed to the extreme like a bowstring, and every muscle burst out with destructive power!
boom!!!!!
The crossed and clenched fists were like a divine punishment from heaven, smashing heavily into the warrior's chest with a terrifying force that could crush everything!
Time seemed to freeze for a moment.
The alloy armor covering the soldier's body, which could withstand heavy artillery bombardment, collapsed, twisted, and disintegrated in an instant, like a thin sheet of iron hit by a sledgehammer!
The terrifying force penetrated the body without any hindrance!
The soldier's body was like a flattened insect specimen. The moment the fists made contact, his chest and abdomen were completely compressed and collapsed! His spine was broken inch by inch!
The body was thrown heavily towards the rolling and broken ground below by this irresistible force!
Boom——!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like a meteorite impact!
A new pit, smaller than the one Nolan had just left, exploded in the ruins, and the shock wave cleared out all the debris within dozens of meters around it!
At the center of the pit, the body of the Vitrum warrior was no longer in human form, deeply embedded in the rock. Only a thin layer of twisted metal and broken flesh and bones remained, completely silent.
The smoke and dust slowly dissipated.
Mark stood at the edge of the new pit and slowly uncrossed his arms.
The bulging, dragon-like muscles on his arms slowly subsided.
He gasped slightly, and two streams of hot white air came out of his mouth and nose, like a steam engine.
There was no damage on the body except for a few places where the alloy blade had scratched it, leaving a few white marks that quickly disappeared.
Three Vitrum assault boats circled high in the sky, their engines humming restlessly.
The pilot inside the boat saw through the sensors the figure standing like a demon below, as well as the remains of his three companions that were instantly crushed. The only sound in the communication channel was the horrified electrical noise.
Mark raised his head, his cold gaze like a real steel needle, piercing the airship hovering in the sky.
No words.
He simply raised his right arm slowly and pointed at one of the ships.
This simple action made the assault boat that was being pointed at like a frightened rabbit. Its engine instantly overloaded, spewing out a long tail flame, and it hurriedly increased its altitude in an attempt to escape!
Mark's mouth curled up in a cold arc.
He squatted slightly, and the muscles in his legs were instantly compressed to the extreme like super springs filled with power, and the rocks under his feet silently turned into powder!
boom!
A sonic boom cloud exploded on the spot, and Mark's figure disappeared!
The air was violently torn and compressed!
A blurry figure rushed straight towards the fleeing airship like a retrograde meteor at a speed that surpassed the speed of the assault boat!
The driver in the boat only saw a rapidly enlarging afterimage on the screen, and his screams of terror stopped abruptly!
Bang!
Crack—boom!!!
A brutal collision of steel and flesh!
Mark's body was like the toughest armor-piercing bullet, hitting the most vulnerable engine part of the assault boat without any tricks!
The alloy shell that was strong enough to withstand missile bombardment caved in and cracked like paper, the engine was instantly squeezed into scrap metal, and the violent energy leakage caused a secondary explosion!
Under the huge impact force and internal explosion, the entire assault boat disintegrated in mid-air like a crushed toy, turning into a burning metal fireball. Countless fragments, carrying flames and thick smoke, smashed into the ruins below like a meteorite rain.
Mark's figure emerged from the exploding fireball unscathed, and landed steadily on the ground with falling debris and flames.
He looked up at the other two assault boats that had risen to extremely high altitudes and were fleeing madly like frightened birds, and did not give chase.
He doesn't need to chase.
He needs to pass the word to the Vitrum people...
Tell Dad, Nolan Grayson.
Want to eat the earth...it's not that easy.
Mark turned and walked towards the huge concrete block where his mother was hiding.
Debbie walked out from behind the bunker, looking at her son's iron body that seemed to have walked out of ancient mythology, looking at the battlefield around her that had completely turned into a scorched earth purgatory, looking at the huge crack in the sky and the burning outline of the city in the distance.
"Mark…where…are we going?"
Her voice was filled with exhaustion from surviving a disaster and uncertainty about the future.
Mark stopped and looked into the distance.
His eyes penetrated the smoke and seemed to see somewhere farther away.
"Let's go find Chief Cessel."
Mark's voice was low and firm, with a steely will.
"Then…"
He clenched his fists slightly, and the air in his palms exploded with a dull bang.
"…We need backup."